On Our Radar

On Our Radar

Zynga's Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Karp Resigns

Adding to the long list of employees who have exited Zynga (ZNGA) since its initial public offering, the online games maker said late Monday that it is also losing chief marketing and revenue officer Jeff Karp.

Continue Reading Below

Karp immediately resigned from his position as an officer but will remain with the company in a non-officer capacity as per a separation agreement through Sept. 22 to help with the transition.

Zynga did not name a replacement.

The CMO becomes the latest top executive to leave the ailing maker of “Farmville” and “Words with Friends.” Last month, Zynga lost Chief Creative Officer Mike Verdu, Chief Operating Officer John Schappert, as well as its vice presidents of studios and marketing, among others.

Zynga has so far shrugged off the flight of its higher-most employees, claiming at the end of August that their departure is not surprising in a post IPO environment and adding that its voluntary attrition rate is “well below” the industry average.

In a statement, Zynga said the groups that had been reporting to Karp have been realigned under “appropriate existing divisions.”

Continue Reading Below

ADVERTISEMENT

“As we continue our transition toward mobile and multiplatform game creation and distribution, their continued execution will be key to our future success,” Zynga said.

Over the next 12 days, Karp will continue to receive his regular salary and remain eligible for the company’s benefits package. Once he leaves, he will receive a severance in cash equal to three months of his base salary and additional money to extend his health insurance.

In exchange for signing a standard general release of claims, Zynga will also accelerate the vesting of 100,000 unvested Zynga shares under Karp’s previous award.

Shares of Zynga edged lower after hours and are down about 70.3% from January.

The company has struggled to grow sales and usage and has been trying to focus on growing its mobile presence in an effort to minimize its dependency on Facebook (FB).

Zynga swung to a second-quarter loss in July and forecast earnings sharply below Wall Street’s consensus for the full year.